Liz Gilbert, author of the international bestseller Eat, Pray, Love spoke at Oprah’s “The Life You Want Weekend” recently and said something rather controversial about finding your passion:
“I’m going to say something really weird and it’s going to surprise you… I’m going to speak out for a second against passion.”
“You spend a lot of your life having people tell you to follow your passion. It’s nice advice, it’s heart-warming advice, it’s great advice — if you happen to have one that is very clear and obvious”
But what if you’re like me (and the majority of the human race) and don’t have a single clear passion, then what do you do? The idea that you must find your passion before starting anything keeps you in a holding pattern forever.
And as Gilbert went on to say it can even make you miserable:
“Sometimes it feels cruel and all it does is make you feel even worse and more left out, because you’re like, ‘I would if I knew what it was!'”
“If you’re in that position right now… forget about passion.”
Instead, she suggests something more practical:
“Follow your curiosity”
“Passion is rare; passion is a one-night-stand. Passion is hot, it burns. Every day, you can’t access that.”
So what do you think of Gilbert’s advice?
Do you already have a clear passion? And if so, have you acted on it?
If not here’s something that might help.
What are your micro-passions?
If you simply note where your curiosity and enjoyment lies at the moment and follow it, I have found you will come across your micro-passions – small areas of life that fascinate or excite you right now.
As I mentioned, I don’t have one big passion. But I do have plenty of micro-passions.
Here are just a few of my micro-passions:
- The future of work and value creation in the 21st century
- Non-fiction writing that teaches new ways to see the world and get what you want
- Innovative user-interface design in software and hardware
- Productivity apps and software
- Endocrinology
- The science of happiness
- Psychological differences between the genders
- The cultural differences revealed in language
- The rules of punctuation and grammar in English
- The best coffee in London
- High protein breakfasts
- Building good looking websites quickly
- Automation software
- Standup comedy
- Interviews with famous authors, comedians, musicians, entrepreneurs and creative people
- The future of publishing
- High end audio-visual technology
- Modern architecture and skyscrapers and bars/restaurants with a dramatic view of a city
How’s that for variety? And this is just a small selection. What’s great for me is that I can use a huge number of my micro-passions in a single business (because I designed it that way)
So what are your micro-passions?
Share your top 3 in the comments. I’d love to know…